A properly equipped bakery, a 5am start, and a package up to £35,000. We're growing our bakery team.
Park Side Bakery & Deli opened this year at Amber Vista in Lakeside, and it has quickly become the place people walk across the park for. Everything is baked on site - bread, viennoiserie, pastry and cakes - and it goes out three ways: over the deli counter, onto the plates at Park Side Kitchen next door, and across to our sister sites in the Fire & Wine Group.
Demand has grown faster than we planned for, so we're adding an experienced baker to the team.
The kit you'll be working with
We've invested properly, because you can't bake well without the tools:
- Deck oven and convection/rack oven
- Spiral mixer for the doughs, planetary mixer for the sweet work
- Sheeter - so your laminated work is about quality, not wrestling a rolling pin at 4am
- Retarder/prover - full control of your fermentation, and the reason this job starts at 5am instead of 3am
What you'll be making
- Sourdough - a properly looked-after starter, long fermentation, honest crumb. No shortcuts, no improvers.
- A full bread range - tin loaves, focaccia, rolls and enriched doughs that feed the deli and the kitchen's brunch and sandwich menus.
- Viennoiserie - croissants, pain au chocolat, seasonal danish, and whatever else you can talk us into.
- Sweet bakes - cakes, tarts, traybakes and the counter pastries that are gone by 11am.
Who we're looking for
- A baker who can confidently run bread, viennoiserie and sweet bakes - not just one of the three.
- Someone who genuinely understands fermentation and lamination, and knows how to use a retarder to build flavour rather than just park dough in the cold.
- Consistency under time pressure. The counter has to be full when the doors open, every day.
- A proper team player. You'll be working as part of a small bakery team, sharing a section and a production plan with other bakers and with the kitchen next door. Communication, reliability and turning up for your colleagues matter here as much as your technique does.
- Organised: production planning, ordering, stock rotation, waste control.
- Solid on food safety and allergens (Level 2 minimum, or willing to get it - we'll pay).
- Someone with an opinion about what should be on the counter next month.
Formal qualifications are welcome but not essential. What you bake matters more than where you trained.
The shape of the week
- Full-time, permanent - a contracted 40 hours across 5 days out of 7.
- 5am–6am starts, finished by early afternoon. No split shifts, no late nights, no 3am alarm. Your evenings are your own.
- Weekend work on a rota, shared fairly across the team - we're busiest then.
What we offer
- £31,000 basic, package up to £35,000. A proper wage for a craft role, because we want to keep the right person.
- Genuine creative input. Seasonal specials, supper clubs, pop-ups and collaborations. Bring us ideas and we'll bake them.
- Free food on shift and staff discount across every Fire & Wine Group site.
- Training and supplier visits - we'll back your development, and as the group grows there's real room to progress.
- You'll work alongside Group Executive Chef Grady Atkins, who brings 30+ years from Michelin-starred and luxury kitchens.
- An independent, family-run group. The people making the decisions are people you'll actually see in the building.
How to apply
Apply through Indeed. A short note about what you bake and why is just as welcome as a formal CV. If you've got photos of your crumb or your lamination, even better - we'd rather see the bread than the buzzwords.
Applicants must have the right to work in the UK.
Pay: £31,000.00-£35,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- Discounted or free food
- Employee discount
- On-site parking
- Sick pay
Work Location: In person
